This invention relates to improved magazines for holding a series of rounds of ammunition in a gun.
A known type of magazine for holding a series of rounds to be fed to and fired successively by an automatic pistol or the like includes a hollow magazine body containing a follower urged upwardly by a spring to progressively advance the rounds toward a firing location. The magazine is reloaded by removing it downwardly from the gun and then filling additional rounds into the magazine body through its upper end. As these rounds are inserted into the magazine body, the follower must move downwardly against the tendency of its actuating spring, with this spring thus acting to resist the loading operation. In a conventional magazine, the user may pull the follower downwardly to a lower position in order to allow the rounds to be fed into the magazine, and may hold the follower manually in that lower position until all of the rounds have been loaded. However, it is extremely inconvenient to exert such downward force on the follower relative to the magazine body during all of the time that the magazine is being filled.